Back in class

On Monday of last week I started taking a class at UCI. Unlike my earlier classes which were through extension, this is a real UCI class. Everyone else in the class is a full time UCI undergraduate majoring in electrical engineering. It is one of there summer session classes. It is five weeks long, so it fits a full ten week class into half the time. This includes six hours of lecture, two hours of discussion, and six hours of lab every week.

Since I am not a regular UCI student, there have been some problems getting everything set for the class. For example, I cannot log on to the UCI computer system from home. When I called the office up, I was told I should have received a number in the mail with my registration; I never received anything in the mail from them. Then I was told I would have to go to the office to get my ID number.

The next day I went to campus and visited the office, actually a window, and was able to get a copy of my registration with an ID number. I went over to the parking office and bought a parking pass. While I was there I saw one of the stupidest things I have seen in a long time. Someone illegally parked in the parking lot of the UCIPD and the Parking & Transportation Office. I saw the student arguing with a police officer as his car was being ticketed for being parked in a place that clearly was not a parking spot.

Class starts
The class is about control systems. So far it is going well. The instructor is a good lecturer and wants all of us to do well.

However, lab section contained another bureaucratic battle. The class requires the use of MATLAB, which is on the computers in the lab. On the first day of lab I was unable to log in to the computer system. To make a long story short, after talking to three different people (including the EECS chair), signing up for a UCI email address, visiting multiple buildings, and missing an hour of lab I was still unable to log in. I decided to wait until after the weekend in case the system needed time to update. When I was still unable to log in today, I made a phone call and talked to someone who finally enabled my access.

My first assignment is due on Wednesday and the first lab assignment will be revealed on Thursday.